Food, Inc

We (son, partner, self) went to the county-seat tonight and saw this movie documentary.

It's fantastic in a sort of really ugly, sad and instructive way. In the past fifty years USA has gone from a reliance on real food to a reliance on corn and soy beans to be major re-constituted parts of our diet.

Ever wonder why you can't lose weight although you try to watch yourself and eat well? Perhaps the answser is the same answer as to why beef cattle are so huge these days. Corn and soy beans make up the vast majority of food content. To boot, due to the subsidizing of Monsanto, Cargile, ADM, Tyson, and about five other food processors that provide in excess of 80% of the content of all of our food sold in USA are protected by government policy and the courts from being criticized.

You, and I are just like beef cows to these folks -- feed 'em a lot of corn, get that cheap thanks to the subsidies and let 'em eat their way home as our bidness income becomes sky-riffic. Like the beef-cow, we get weighty on corn.

Of course, you may find that you can't afford to buy local grown meat and vegetables and most grocery stores don't stock local grown food, even when it's in season. Why, because the corn-products are kept at an artificially low-price. So everyone can afford more "food" that's actually re-constituted corn and soybeans.

Go see the documentary if you have a chance. It's very well done and the story will blow you away. O, you may want to eat prior to watching it as you may not want to eat afterwards. 

Someone here said recently that things will straighten out and our current system will be sustainable for another generation.

Not the way we eat, not when 1/2 of all children born since 2000 will be diabetic by their 30s.

If you are what you eat, then many of us are corn.

QuoteIf you are what you eat, then many of us are corn.

er, isn't corn supposed to be good for us?

Not really, and it's not the corn per se, but the corn products like corn syrup.

I have not seen the movie, but I will.  I try to follow this stuff, I'm sure a lot of it comes from Fast Food Nation, and similar writings.

Yes, Kat. Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, both were in the movie and a lot of the movie follows the lines of their books.

Well, Nero, corn should be good, but prolly not when it makes up so much of the diet of folks. There's corn product in pretty much every processed food we eat. The addition of high fructose corn syrup is a major harmful addition to many products. 

It comes back to big business controlling Government. The FDA is a partner with the corn industry thanks to campaign contributions and lobbyists. Those same companies are writing the health care bill. We will not solve our problems with the way the system is now operated.

Some how we need to reduce money's influence on government and give it back to the people that are using rational facts instead of greed and emotion.

Quote from: lisagurl on July 25, 2009, 08:57:12 AM
It comes back to big business controlling Government. The FDA is a partner with the corn industry thanks to campaign contributions and lobbyists. Those same companies are writing the health care bill. We will not solve our problems with the way the system is now operated.

Some how we need to reduce money's influence on government and give it back to the people that are using rational facts instead of greed and emotion.

It might be instructive to point out as well, Lisa, that "the corn industry" is not a huge group of "small afrmers who have 25-100 acres of corn in production.

Instead the "corn industry" is pretty much ConAgra and ADM and Monsanto who "own" the seeds and use their full weight to prosecute and harass any "small farmers" who don't fall into line with their desires, which generally include using the corn that the global corporations have patented. (The Supreme Court, in a decision for which Claence Thomas, former Monsanto atty,) wrote the opinion for it was found that "corn" (or in the event a soybean) wasnot just corn or soybean if Monsanto had made a gene that was grafted to the corn and released. The corn, or whatever plant then belongs to Monsanto.

The court system has made it mostly impossible for any farmer who wants to grow corn -- for which Congress has made all sorts of laws as "farm policy" which make certain that corn is the hugest and most dominant crop produced in USA along with soybeans -- has to use Monsanto seeds. To not do so is an almost guaranteed way to wind up broke and in court with Monsanto attys.

The agra-industrial complex runs your food if you are a US citizen.  You'll get chicken from Tyson or Perdue, beef from Swift or BFI or three other firms and pork from those places as well. Produce will come through a factory process defined and profited by by the ConAgra and ADM. The only way to break that habit is to leave the grocery chains that do NOT provide access to local grown crops when they are in-season. Pretty much whatever else you buy has been industrially produced and manufactured.

 

Quote from: Nichole on July 25, 2009, 12:49:55 AM
Yes, Kat. Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, both were in the movie and a lot of the movie follows the lines of their books.

Well, Nero, corn should be good, but prolly not when it makes up so much of the diet of folks. There's corn product in pretty much every processed food we eat. The addition of high fructose corn syrup is a major harmful addition to many products.

I have heard that the high fructose corn syrup is very addicting and actually makes you hungrier when you eat it, which is why you can't seem to put down that bag of cookies and probably one of the main reasons obesity and its related ailments are epidemic in the US.

And ADM runs such pretty commercials on PBS. Guess all they really care about is feeding us corn and an unhealthy side of BS to go with it.

As someone who lived in rural Iowa where everyone planed corn or soy (except the one running huge confinement hog lots) those people only used the word 'farm' when they were trying to get tax breaks, otherwise, down at the cafe, it was agri-business.  And far from pastoral, it's as industrial as River Rouge.

QuoteThe only way to break that habit is to leave the grocery chains that do NOT provide access to local grown crops when they are in-season

The grocery chain is longer than you think. Many have contracts with farms typically owned by large corporations to supply grocery chains with local and shipped produce all year long. They bypass any local small farmers market or middle men. Farm coops also contract with large corporations.

The other approach is work with the Government to bring back integrity to the Dept's. that are suppose to protect the public. EPA, FDA, OSHA, NSA, AEC, CDC, CDER, DOE,DOJ, NASA,NHTSA, WHO, etc. many highly qualified and dedicated scientists have left due to the politics and handcuffs put on them by the lobbyists if big business getting to write the laws and budgets that effect the ability of those departments to operate free of industry control. Congressmen are so concerned about the economy of their state that they sacrifice the wellbeing of the country. It is pure greed as the system does not allow for protection from profits over health.

No, Lisa, it isn't longer than I think. Most of the restaurants in the eastern USA anyhow are tied to Robert Orr/Sysco for their foods. McDonalds pretty much demands what they wish from the beef bidness which is one of the major reasons the industrial farms became so prfitable to begin with. Mickey Ds uses more beef in a standard year than any other sort of American consumer, to include restaurant chains, grocery stores, etc.

Yes the big grocery chains buy their foods in b ulk from huge sitributors and are contacted to but XYZ foods from such and such a comglomerate: Conagra, ADM etc or the industrial farms in the CA Valley. I do understand the grip that contrcatual arrangements have on the food industrail complex.

I also know that Walmart has made a contract as well with the largest organic dairy in the world: Smithfield Farms. If those great unwashed who shop at Walmart are getting into organic dairy enough for Walmart to contract to sell their dairy in its grocery outlets then someone has developed some clout for organic dairy. If they have no consumer dollars coming in from buying Smithfield products why would Walmart stock them?

My suggestion is that small changes can make large waves. Would you pay more to cut the country's medical bills by 2/3? Just based on the health value of the foods we all eat? The food we eat contributes to hyper-tension, heart-disease, diabetes and in many case cancer.

We see medical professionals take on the smoking industry for good reason. But with better reason they should take on the food industry. That change is possible. Thirty years ago no one thought Phillip Morris would have a minimal market in USA. Today they do.

Small changes, petitioning and aggravating grocery chains to buy local and buy organic would do a lot to solve a lot of those other problems you're on about a lot: the high costs of medical care, for instance. But to make the changes in food requires people start changing their eting habits. Buying local in-season food and foregoing star-fruit, mangos from Jamaica etc would make a lot of difference actually.

Locally grown grass-fed beef costs about half again as much -- but what costs are missing from that 1/2 more? Let's see, E coli and salmonella, huge feed lot runoff problems, tainted and recalled meat where you're scared to death you child's gonna die or that you'll wind-up with Mad-cow disease. On and on.

O yes, I understand the ramifications and that industrial agriculture is a huge paper tiger that one ripple could bring down forever.

And the big distrinutors can contract whatever they wish and the industrial foods corps can have as many contracts as they wish. If people are buying their meat and produce locally and organic and growing their own -- that could be a pretty huge ripple. 

   

Quote from: Nichole on July 26, 2009, 10:50:29 PMMy suggestion is that small changes can make large waves. Would you pay more to cut the country's medical bills by 2/3? Just based on the health value of the foods we all eat? The food we eat contributes to hyper-tension, heart-disease, diabetes and in many case cancer.

We see medical professionals take on the smoking industry for good reason. But with better reason they should take on the food industry. That change is possible. Thirty years ago no one thought Phillip Morris would have a minimal market in USA. Today they do.

that's a great suggestion, if for no other reason than obesity is epidemic among Americans. It causes any number of health problems, including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Obviously this epidemic has to be the result in part of the types of foods we have available.

Quote from: FairyGirl on July 26, 2009, 11:27:58 PM
... Obviously this epidemic has to be the result in part of the types of foods we have available.

Obviously, but the sad fact is that 95% of the people believe it's simply the fault of parents and the individuals. Yet, the food industrial complex only provides bad food for the majority of people living in USA and the "balme" invariably goes to the consumer who has no choice of good food or the factory-produced schlock passed out by the industry.

Assitives, almost all corn or soy product are not investigated on a large scale. The FDA and DOA or reduced in size and numbers of inspectors, the industry itself provides the "oversight" for itself and many ex-industry CEOs, attys and lobbyists are placed in-charge of "Farm Bills" and the running of the agencies that oversee frood safety and production.

Most Americans think they eat well or that fast-food is the only bad food available -- when in fact the produce, meat and dairy you get from your grocery-store chain is the exact same schlock avaibale at McDonalds, Arbys, Burger King, etc. It's also only-available in high-priced restaurants and much is available at groceries like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

Labeling has become insane with additives like Xantine Gum not listed as exactly what they are -- corn/soy extracts. Chemical agents are listed with technical chemical terms and even the well-versed consumer hasn't a clue what the vast majority of those compounds are and from whence they derive. Fact is, if the food you buy says much more than (corn meal, for instance) then you're getting additives. Lists of more than maybe 8 ingredients are almost a sure sign of poor nutrition.

But only we are able at this point to drive the food industry to doing something other than what they do. The growers and producers are pretty much tied to non-disclosure contrcats with corproations like Tyson about revealing how you chicken, for instance, is raised and on what it feeds. Same with "big-farmers" in the beef industry. Lawsuits that involve filming of feed-lots are common and a great wall of silence is brought down over exposing food-industry policies, procedures and capacities.

Are the exposes and reserach "scare tactics?" To some extent they are --they are perforce, because placing the food most of us do within our bodies is a very scary, very secretive and very money-making thing.

A society, like an army, travels on it's stomach. Your health is based on what you take into your body in large part and the industry, just like other factory-based industries is loathe to reveal what it actually does. We are about at the point with food in 2009 that we were with cigarettes in 1955. The industry controls the message and the message you get is the message they wish you to get. They know that their giantism can be brought down as the number of people who know and buy accordingly come to the point of reaching a critical mass.   

QuoteLocally grown grass-fed beef costs about half again as much -- but what costs are missing from that 1/2 more?

Local beef has to go to a commercial slaughter house because FDA has rules that an inspector needs to be on site and have his own bathroom.

Locally here a small farmer has to have another job. So he works during the day and farms at night. Typically he sells to the COOP which in turn sell to big business. The local farmers market is mostly hobby farms. Very few grow a variety of things. The chains like Kroger do buy from the COOPs to reduce shipping when things are in season.  They still use chemicals.

Quote from: lisagurl on July 27, 2009, 09:05:08 AM
Local beef has to go to a commercial slaughter house because FDA has rules that an inspector needs to be on site and have his own bathroom.

Locally here a small farmer has to have another job. So he works during the day and farms at night. Typically he sells to the COOP which in turn sell to big business. The local farmers market is mostly hobby farms. Very few grow a variety of things. The chains like Kroger do buy from the COOPs to reduce shipping when things are in season.  They still use chemicals.

Yep, should have said "organic." Thank you. And there are slaughter houses that don't work on the big business model and there are farms here that process their own meat and package it with FDA inspections. Not a huge business.

The major chains here will occasionallky have something they call "locally grown" but their organic foods come from elsewhere. We do have a lot of farm-stands for produce and a number of CSAs (communty supported agriculture) farms where familes by shares and most are certified organic. You go work or not dependant on how much you wish to pay for shares.

There are legitimate and possible ways to "cut-into" the industrial food chain. But, yes, they often require some travel and usually require that you be willing to pay more for food, but hell, if you haven't health insurance or have poor health insurance insuring your own health in ways like that may well be worth the candle you burn.

And 'organic' does not necessarily mean organic, no more than slapping a sticker on something and calling it 'green' makes it so.  I almost wet myself a few weeks ago when ads for the Indy car race in Toronto called it 'the first green IRL race ever."  Why not a green petroleum refinery and a green strip mine?

And that's one of the hugest problems with the "organic" you find in the grocery stores "how much petro-chemical was involved in shipping this here?" for instance.

One of the deals with local produce is "how much petro-chemical was used to produce this?"

Yep, takes a lot of work to be a consumer and not garden one's self. And it takes a lot of work to can or freeze foods that are in-season for use when they aren't in-season. Or one does what people have always done outside the tropics and lower temperate regions: one does without green foods over the winter and eats rose-hips and other vitamin sources along with their root vegetables.

In some circles it's called the 3000 Mile Salad, with the Cali lettuce and string beans from Utah. And I think it's days are numbered in many respects.  Shipping costs have shoved some of those prices through the roof.

Quotethere are farms here that process their own meat and package it with FDA inspections. Not a huge business.

Chicken yes, but beef has to go to a FDA place although there are a few that process wild game etc. but still they are a big investment. They cost a few million to meet the standards and then the inspector will come one or two days a week that they can operate.  The idea is good but the big business has hold of those that make the rules and that makes the rules in big business favor.

The idea is good but the big business has hold of those that make the rules and that makes the rules in big business favor.

Pretty much the history of regulation since the 1890s.